The Allen Institute for Brain Science has released the latest depictions of its planned new South Lake Union ahead of the next design review meeting, scheduled for Wednesday.

The institute, which Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen launched in 2003, aims to "accelerate the understanding of the human brain in health and disease," tackling big science projects and making its results publicly available.

Last Nov. 2, the institute announced it would move from Fremont to South Lake Union as part of its plan to double its staff and significantly expand its scientific programs. Vulcan Real Estate, Allen's property arm, is developing the six-story, 245,000-square-foot building at the northwest corner of Mercer Street and Westlake Avenue North. Perkins+Will is designing the project.

The institute wants to deviate from design rules to:

Set the building more than 12 back along Mercer Street for open space;

Set the building back at the northeast corner for design reasons and to create open space;

Reduce commercial and public uses from 75 percent of street frontage to 62 percent to allow for an auditorium;

Have two curb cuts, rather than one, with one smaller than minimum requirements;

Allow shorter than minimum-height facades to incorporate the facades of the historic Ford and Pacific McKay buildings; and

Have a blank facade longer than 30 feet to allow for light-controlled and secured spaces. The institute proposes making the long blank facade interesting with a "media wall" that would mix artist-designed graphics with architectural details and lighting.

At the previous design review board meeting, in June, the board recommended visually breaking up the facade along 9th Avenue North, made some suggestions for the media wall and asked to see a more specific concept for the media wall.

Wednesday's meeting is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. in Room 1 of Queen Anne Community Center, 1901 1st Ave. W. Click through the gallery above to see images from the latest proposal.